Practice Exam Questions And Correct

Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH) Certification Practice Exam Questions And Correct Answers (Verified Answers) Plus Rationales 2026 Q&A | Instant Download Pdf

• Which of the following is the primary purpose of ethical hacking?
• To exploit vulnerabilities for personal gain
• To identify and fix security vulnerabilities
• To protect systems by finding weaknesses before attackers do
• To gain unauthorized access to systems

Rationale: Ethical hacking aims to identify vulnerabilities in systems

and networks so they can be corrected before malicious hackers exploit them.

• What is the first phase of the ethical hacking process?
• Reconnaissance
• Gaining Access
• Scanning
• Maintaining Access 1 / 4

Rationale: Reconnaissance involves gathering preliminary data or

intelligence about the target before proceeding with deeper attacks.

• Which type of scan is used to identify open ports and services running

on a target system?

• Social engineering
• Network scanning
• Footprinting
• Privilege escalation

Rationale: Network scanning helps identify live hosts, open ports,

and available services.

• What tool is commonly used for network scanning?
• John the Ripper
• Nmap
• Aircrack-ng
• Hydra

Rationale: Nmap (Network Mapper) is a widely used tool for

discovering hosts and services on a network.

• Which protocol operates at the transport layer of the OSI model?
• IP
• TCP
• ARP
• ICMP 2 / 4

Rationale: TCP is a transport layer protocol used for reliable

communication between systems.

• What is the main purpose of a firewall?
• To encrypt data
• To control incoming and outgoing network traffic
• To detect viruses
• To scan for vulnerabilities

Rationale: Firewalls enforce access control policies between

networks by filtering packets based on defined rules.

• What does the acronym SQL stand for?
• Simple Query Language
• Structured Query Language
• Secure Query Layer
• Scripted Query Logic

Rationale: SQL stands for Structured Query Language, used for

managing and querying databases.

• What type of attack involves inserting malicious SQL statements into

an entry field?

• XSS attack
• SQL injection
• DNS spoofing
• ARP poisoning 3 / 4

Rationale: SQL injection allows attackers to manipulate a database

through unsanitized input fields.

• Which port does HTTPS typically use?
• 20
• 21
• 443
• 80

Rationale: HTTPS uses port 443 for secure communication over

TLS/SSL.

• Which of the following best describes a zero-day vulnerability?
• A vulnerability patched immediately after discovery
• A vulnerability not yet known to the vendor
• A vulnerability caused by user error
• A vulnerability found in old software

Rationale: Zero-day vulnerabilities are unknown to the vendor,

leaving systems exposed until patched.

• Which hashing algorithm produces a 128-bit hash value?
• SHA-256
• MD5
• AES
• DES

Rationale: MD5 produces a 128-bit hash used for verifying integrity,

though it is considered insecure today.

• / 4